Sit chimney starter on top BGE more air flow?

rro

They sell a battery powered blower to push more air in from the bottom. I was thinking about placing my chimney lighter on top my BGE to increase the air flow through the BGE during the initial lighting phase, thereby hopefully decreasing the initial start up time. NOTE: The chimney lighter would be used only as a chimney extension during the lighting phase to increase the air flow through the BGE (IE...No fuel placed in the chimney lighter) Any merit to this idea?

Regards, Ron

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

sounds like you are trying to use the stack effect.

taller skinnier chimney can often increase airflow. but doesn't the bottom of the chimney starter have a plate across it to keep the lump from falling out?

give it a shot, but i frankly use fresh lump and light in a few spots (oil/paper-napkin method), and can be at max temps (say 650-700+) in 15 to 20 minutes (assuming dry lump and egg)

The Naked Whiz

The little rack inside the chimney starters is usually 2-3 inches up from the bottom to allow room for the newspaper. So it would probably sit on top of the Egg ok.

rro

The Naked Whiz wrote:

The little rack inside the chimney starters is usually 2-3 inches up from the bottom to allow room for the newspaper. So it would probably sit on top of the Egg ok.

Thanks for the reply

I plan to place the chimney starter upside down on top of the BGE because of the vent holes located under the screen on the bottom. If this test bears fruit, then use a stove pipe that fits snug either on top or inside the BGE exit vent for a follow on test. Placing it around the inside might be better because it will hold the chimney in place and not scratch the pretty green baked on paint.

Regards, Ron

SMITTYtheSMOKER

All this to save 4 minutes?

RRP

that is a fired ceramic glaze - not baked on pretty paint

Carolina Q

Unless you have one of the "gold" models.

BobinFla

SMITTYtheSMOKER wrote:

All this to save 4 minutes?

Yeah! I am with ya, Smitty. Pop a beer and wait.

BOB

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

just curious what the expectation is? 5 minutes to raging inferno?

what tends to happen is that we light out eggs, go inside to prep, and come out with the food ready to go.

instead of prepping food, going outside to light it, and then drumming our fingers while waiting, we just light first.

takes no longer than any other cooker really, if you plan just a bit ahead

Grandpas Grub

 
My medium egg is a real pain in the butt as for starting and getting to temperature.

Early on with that egg I tried a lot of different ideas including a 'chimney' extension. 3' & 6' over the top vent hole. Neither made much difference in the start up time or increasing temperature to get to any given temperature.

I also tried the chimney's on the large and no real difference. Using a blower on the lower vent made a little difference but not a huge benefit.

However, I did discover some huge start improvements especially with the this medium.

The easiest to implement was to put a vent tube through the lower vent into the fire box under the lump stack.

Normal non assisted starting of that medium, cleaned out, new lump up to the top of the fire box and using 2 oil/paper towel starters was about 62 minutes to get to and stable at 450°. 32 minutes to get to 420°, these start up times were a pretty common occurance.

Using the same setup, lump and starting methods and using some non BGE tricks I can get the same medium up to 430°, after the initial flame up and burn down and stable in 9 minutes. 630° and stable in 13 minutes.

There are a few different ways to accomplish this but the easiest is the 'tunnel' method.

The aluminum foil around the vent opening is not at all necessary and makes no noticeable time difference being on or off.



I remove the tunnel when I am at about 350°, earlier if the cook temperature is below 350°. Once the lump burn is established it will draw the air well enough on its own.

I am cooking at 5,000' elevation and from what I read from other posts when I was originally doing and posting these tests a lot of people saw not much of a problem, most of those folks were cooking pretty close to sea level.

The large really doesn't need any 'tricks'. I am working on a 'tunnel' for the small as it is slow to start and get to temperature.

GG

subrostud

I have a large Egg, and have tried 2 as well as 3 BGE fire starters, with the Eggcelerator, and temp quickly gets to 300F, but then stays there. I've cleaned the holes in the bottom, removed ash, made sure there's enough lump charcoal, left the top fully open, and still--takes long time (maybe 30 min) to get to 400F. Cooking at 50 foot elevation.

What am I doing wrong?

Still lovin' the egg!
Subrostud

Mahi-Mahi

Using a Mapp gas hand torch speeds things up. IF you light the charocoal in four spots and use a Guru with the fan a blasting it goes fast. Probably a little too fast.

Grandpas Grub

 
Short version... if I were you I would get and use a wiggle rod, to me it sounds like the air flow up through the fire great is blocked in some way.

GG